| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs) have emerged as an important but largely unnoticed
approach towards a nuclear-weapon-free world, overshadowed by the more visible Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Zones established so far cover some 50% of
the world's land areas, including 99% of all land south of the equator and 74% of all land outside
nuclear-weapon states1
(NWSs). Altogether, NWFZs include 119 states and 18 other territories,
with some 1.9 billion inhabitants. Several more NWFZs are currently under discussion-
one of which is a proposed zone to cover the circumpolar Arctic. Such a zone has been
discussed since the mid-1960s, but it has recently become politically feasible following global
warming and the gradual melting of the polar ice-cap.
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